Whenever I hear people say "that's like comparing apples to oranges" it never makes sense to me.
In fact, there is no two fruits that are more alike than apples and oranges. I mean, they're both fruit, they're both roughly spherical and they serve the same social purpose. Like, if I was having lunch with someone eating and apple, and I looked away for a moment and he suddenly decided to switch it with an orange, I don't think I would have noticed. I can't think of anything can be more similar to and orange than and apple.
So how can someone use this phrase as a metaphor for making the distinguish of a difference. I could better understand if you said something like "that's like comparing apples and vitamin C pills", or "that's like comparing apples and JRR Tolkein", or "that's like comparing apples and the internet", or "that's like comparing apples to the steady decline in our society's ability to communicate a simple concept". Those are much better examples of comparison. But not apples and oranges.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
That's the Bad News
A very famous author once said that "if you watch the local news, your brain will turn to mush". At the time, I had to agree somewhat, but increasingly I agree even more. You simply can't trust the news anymore.
The state of our society these days is falling apart. We are all classified by our race, social class and how much we know about celebrities. Mainstream news decided somewhere along the lines that they needed to start reporting on celebrities too. And after they do it, they complain about the amount of news coverage they get. When Paris Hilton walked out of jail looking like she was walking the catwalk, CNN replayed that video clip of her smiling for hours on end. This was depressing, and what happened next was depressingly predictable. At 9PM that night they all had a discussion on how Paris Hilton's TV coverage. I don't think I really need to explain why this is stupid.
It seems that television is now complaining about itself, they feel it is a waste of time to talk about Paris HIlton when they are complaining about the fact that Paris Hilton is on TV. I think it's too late to save the news now, for obvious reasons. That's the bad news.
The state of our society these days is falling apart. We are all classified by our race, social class and how much we know about celebrities. Mainstream news decided somewhere along the lines that they needed to start reporting on celebrities too. And after they do it, they complain about the amount of news coverage they get. When Paris Hilton walked out of jail looking like she was walking the catwalk, CNN replayed that video clip of her smiling for hours on end. This was depressing, and what happened next was depressingly predictable. At 9PM that night they all had a discussion on how Paris Hilton's TV coverage. I don't think I really need to explain why this is stupid.
It seems that television is now complaining about itself, they feel it is a waste of time to talk about Paris HIlton when they are complaining about the fact that Paris Hilton is on TV. I think it's too late to save the news now, for obvious reasons. That's the bad news.
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